Valentine
by dancefleur
Summary: The mysteries are over, Patricia's grieving and Amber's lonely. It's Valentines' Week and they're caught up in the middle of happy couples. Would they find love and happiness as well?


_Chapter Revised_

I don't own House of Anubis or any of its characters.

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><p>Remember<p>

It was unusually sunny for February, and the sun warmed her body in a nice way. _Too nice_. She faintly hears gravel shift from a distance as two pairs of feet run across racing to get home. "Hey, Trixie-pixie!" Alfie calls out as he zooms passed her. He laughs exuberantly as he smells victory and yells, "Jerome, I am gonna kick your- ah!" He falls on his palms and knees as he trips on a rock.

Jerome howls out in laughter, slowing down a bit. He turns around to run backwards and shouts, "Com'mon now, get off your butt!" He speeds up and continues running towards his finish line.

Patricia rolls her eyes and rushes to help Alfie up. "You have to be more careful, mate. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, thanks. Just scraped the skin," he assures her with that smile that never seems to leave his face. They resume their walk towards the house. Flashes of memories flood him at the sight of the sign that says Anubis. The mysteries, the danger, the adventures... He is happy to know it was all over. "Nice day, huh?"

Patricia regards, and it was a nice day. _Too nice_. "Nah, it's alright," she shrugs. Alfie eyes her worriedly the way everyone does nowadays. "Stop that. And I know what your going to say. So don't."

"Patricia..." She knows it was coming, the_ talk_, but everytime she just walls them out. "It's been months... I miss her, too, but... I doubt she wants you to be this way... this miserable." _How would you know?_ He knows this hurts, although not how much. He hesitates, "You need to move on or at least try to."

_Crash_. Patricia stops. Oh, that ache in her heart- She glares at him. "Are you- You want me to forget about J- about Joy?"

With wide eyes, Alfie frantically shakes his head and stutters over his explanation, "I-I-I didn't say that- "

"Look," Patricia breathes in deeply to calm herself. She doesn't need this. "I don't wanna talk about it, 'kay?" She mutters as she rushes up the steps and enters the house passing a grinning Jerome. Trudy's greeting, Amber's worried look and Victor's stare ignored as she pounds her way to her room. Her bag hits the floor with an angry thud as she rips her school uniform off and changes to mismatched sweatshirt and pants.

She heard it a thousand times. They said it a thousand time. _Move on_. Are they insane? She grips the door of her dresser hard as tearless sobs escape her. It was worse than crying. They say all it takes was time. Well, she given her time. She waited but nothing. Her tears faded, her sadness subdued but the anger and pain remains wedged between her heart and lungs like a broken rib that makes it hard to breathe, and everytime she tries it hurts more, the pointed edges digging deeper into the cuts they made.

The door opens and Mara enters, "Patricia," her voice torn. She goes to hug her but Patricia ducks away.

"Leave me alone," She speaks through gritted teeth avoiding her eyes.

A hand outstretched, Mara hesitates, "But Pa-"

"Leave me alone!" She yells pointing to the door. Mara scrambles out of the room. Through the door, Patricia could hear them whispering.

"What happened? Will she be alright?" It was Fabian's voice. No one responds. After a long pause Nina speaks.

"She needs time." Her blood boils at the statement. She clasps her pounding head tightly as she tries to calm herself down. _Time heals_. She kicks a book that was lying on the floor and it hits the adjacent wall hard. She could hear the gasps from outside but she ignores it. _What a bunch of crap_. She groans and throws herself onto her bed. Time doesn't heal. Time just blurs the memories until a person forgets it. Just because the cut's forgotten doesn't mean it's healed. It just makes an illusion that they've moved on. A person is never healed.

Hours pass and Patricia still lays on her bed unmoving. Neither awake nor asleep, just indifferent to time and space. A knock on the door brought her out of stupor. "Hey," Alfie enters warily and sits by the foot of the bed. "You missed dinner," he prods but Patricia remains unresponsive. He sighs, "We're all worried about you. I hope you realize that." Pauses. "How are you feeling?" Still no answer. "Hear me out. I won't take back what I said before-"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it." Patricia interjects. He becomes silent. She peers his face and his ever-present smile was gone replaced by a troubled frown.

"If I died, I would never want Jerome to not live." Alfie is _so_ deep sometimes. He smiles gravely and walks over to the door.

"I still have nightmares," Patricia confesses. Alfie stops short.

He looks back and studies Patricia for a while. "Me, too." In a few strides, he reaches her. He lightly kisses her forehead, "We'll fight them together." With that he leaves.

He was right. Joy would never want Patricia to be miserable, _but it's me_. Patricia wants to hurt, to feel pain. Patricia wants the sadness, the anger. Because the hurt, pain, sadness and anger reminds her of Joy. It emphasizes their love and friendship. It retains the good times they had, the memories they shared. The hurt, pain, sadness and anger revives Joy. And Patricia doesn't want to loose that.

Sleep starts to overtake her, and she anticipates the nightmare, eager for it to come. She wants to watch it all over again as she does every night. She wants to see every moment with Joy, from the start till her death. She won't fight this nightmare because it hurts. She doesn't want to heal and be left with and ugly scar. She wants to preserve the open wound that throbs Joy. She won't let time blur what they had. She will never move on. She will never forget.


End file.
